^gi^ OTertifie^ 



has subscribed to the 

Lee Memorial Fund 

to be used in the enlargement and 
elaboration of the Lee Memorial 
Chapel and the perpetuation of 
General Lee's work at Washington 
and Lee University, Lexington, Va. 

Custodian and Treasurer 



Copyright, 1921 

by Lee Memorial Fund 

C. B. Tate, Treasurer 



JAN 17 mpi 



Robert E.Lee 



SOLDIER 

PATRIOT 

EDUCATOR 



WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE 
TO HIS LIFE AND SERVICES AT 
WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY 
LEXINGTON, VA. ,, 



T^ub lish e djor th e 

Lee Memorial Fund 

and dedicated to the 

Daughters of the Confederacy 




H 



H-1 



o 



©CU606877 




Captain Rnl)ert E. Lee, U. S. A. 



WASHINGTON AND LEE! What thrilling days, dazzling 
in splendor, these names revive; what romantic glamour 
surrounds them; what potent stimulant to youthful ambition; 
what blessing and benediction to all who cherish liberty, and 
through it honor purity of motive, and devotion to duty! 

Washington and Lee! Spiritual father and son were these most emi- 
nent Virginians, Southrons, citizens of the world, and a psychic influence 
seems to have directed them through almost identical physical mold and 
closely paralleling environment. Both of gentle English origin; born in 
the county of Westmoreland, Virginia ; shortly deprived of a father's guid- 
ing counsel; reared under a mother's influence; early adopting the profes- 
sion of arms; quickly attaining first rank among military men of their day; 
brilliant commanders of the greatest soldiers of all times; retiring into 
humbler calling with the serenity of bearing that is the emblem of real 
greatness. Washington, the exquisite refinement of Colonial purity, pro- 
totype and forecast of Lee, the perfect flower of a civilization that all 
America emulates today. 

Washington and Lee ! At the boundary line of the great L^niversity of 
Washington and Lee, Lexington, Virginia, one approaches a shrine of sacred 
memories that has no counterpart in America. This placid scene, with 
colorful sunshine filtering through tall trees, penciling with light impress- 
ive colonnades, softly revealing stately Colonial architecture, suggests the 



calm, benevolent Washington, whose endowment of the original academy 
brought to it the name of Washington College; but the subtle influence 
that permeates this dignified landscape and kindles a thousand emotions is 
drawn from the constant recurrence of the fragrant memory of the 
knio-htlv Lee, w4io cast about the institution and its environs the luster of 
his last years and maturest mentality, the honor of his name, and the 
continued evidence of his entire consecration to duty. 

Washington and Lee! Here is ever perceived the intangible form of 
General Lee's luminous character, towering above his fellows, and still 
being discovered reaching into greater and greater perspectives as passing 
time clarifies the vision and purifies the hearts of men. Here, also, is the 
most beautiful memorial that human hands have wrought from the chas- 
tity of marble — the chieftain asleep, his stainless sword beside him, stilled 
by his restraining hand. And beneath this shrine, Mecca to tens of thou- 
sands, rests the dust of this man who commands universal homage more 
than half a century after a perfected life had been crow^ied with the most 
exalted example of self-abnegation and entire consecration to the loftiest 
ideals. 

No one can stand on this sward unmoved, or indulge this comnumion 
of nobility without instant elevation and continuing betterment, for here 
lies and here lives one of the really great of all time; divinely inspirational 
in love of countrv: reaching into the supreme heights of military achieve- 
ment ; yet no less eminent as private citizen, counselor of youth, friend of 
every man. 

W ^ 1^ 

September 18, 1865, a solitary horseman rode into Lexington, Virginia, 
a gracious, regal figure, seated on a handsomely proportioned, muscular, 
gray horse. 

General Lee on "Traveler" ! 

Instinctively, the community seemed to have sensed the presence of this 
greatest figure of the South. The narrow streets that the celebrated war- 
horse traversed were livened with men, women and children in earnest 
rivalry to offer homage to the world-famous soldier who had come to 
Lexington to direct the education of Southern youth at Washington 
College. It was a reverent ol)lation to the idol of their hearts; and it was 
a triumphal re-entry into the hearts of hundreds of thousands of others 
who had followed his banner in stirring feats of arms; or, through heroic 
sacrifice, had served their stricken land as valorously as if l)y sword and 
fire on the field of battle. 




Three Historic Homes of General Roliert E. Lee 



For here again was concrete evidence of the purity and loftiness of 
General Lee's character. 

A powerful corporation of the Great Metropolis had tendered him what 
was then regarded a fabulous sum to become its president; transatlantic 
admirers had urged him to accept an estate and honors abroad; other 
advantageous offers had come to him, each showing the way to a life of 
ease in agreeable surroundings. But, as ever throughout his life, he saw 
only the narrow path of duty, and severely putting aside self, he consist- 
ently trod the way, sustained by the elevated sense of personal responsibility 
that had set the stamp of greatness on him in early youth; that had made 
him the model student at West Point; the instant champion of his native 
State when internal revolution threatened her authority; the soldier una- 
fraid in the wild mountain passes of Mexico when, almost single-handed, 
he turned the tide of war, and drew from General Winfield Scott that great 
brevet of praise: "Captain Lee is the very best soldier I ever saw in the 
field!"; the kindlv, paternal commandant of the United States Military 
Academy at West Point ; the affectionate son, who rather than strike at his 
mother State, turned from President Lincoln's tender of command of the 
United States armies and became a subordinate soldier of \^irginia ; the soul 
of an immortal army of incredible valor and equal fortitude in constant 
attrition and final exhaustion; the sustaining influence of an impoverished 
people in bravely accepting the adverse fortunes of war — and now in 
declining a life of comfort to become the head of a broken college, for 
the good of the men of the future. 

Here, in the little town of Lexington, hushed in its compound of lofty 
mountains, sweetened by the thought of Washington, his Great Exemplar ; 
consecrated by the last resting place of his famous "right-arm," Stone- 
wall Jackson — he sat "Traveler," the same imposing figure that had sounded 
the whole gamut of military greatness — come to serve rather than to accept 
ministration. 

To those who looked on him there was pictured the eminent com- 
mander whose prescience continuously forecast the enemy's design; the 
uncanny skill that drafted and directed campaigns destined to shape the 
conduct of war for generations ; the audacious, intrepid, irresistible offense 
and the inexhaustible resources of defense — the sublimity of military 
genius; the three accidents that swept absolute victory from his grasp 
through loss in the moment of triumph of Johnston at Seven Pines; peer- 
less Jackson at Chancellorsville; Longstreet in the Wilderness. Then the 
vision of martial glory gave place to the kindly face of the Christian Gen- 
tleman — yet greater, in that he came to give all to the helpless, with no 
thought of self impairing his vision ; that men measuring to the standards 



he had set for himself were to be reared from the shattered family circles 
of the Southland and fitted for the greater civilization that was to form a 
social and commercial fabric even more imposing than had been projected 
for the Confederate States — but within a newly cemented Union of States, 
and a blood bond of brotherly affection. 

General Lee and faithful "Traveler" had descended from dizzy heights 
of glory, down through the darkened shades of agonizing disappointment 
and thwarted purpose, but the soul of the renowned horseman had ascended 
again into an altitude of distinction that few^ great men ever attain. 

Whatever the reaction of his emotions, his words were few and 
restrained: "I have led the young men of the South to battle. I have 
seen many of them die in the field. I shall now devote myself to training 
men to do their duty in life." 

Mr. Edward Clifton Gordon, President Lee's proctor, has lately stated 
that probably the coming of General Lee to Washington College resulted 
from Col. Bolivar Christian overhearing a remark of General Lee's eldest 
daughter, who said: "The people of the South are offering my father every- 
thing but work, and work is the only thing he will accept at their hands." 

At a later meeting of Washington College trustees, Colonel Christian 
brought to the board's attention the possibility of inducing General Lee to 
head the college, and Judge Brockenbrough, then rector of the board, was 
sent to inform the prospective president of his election. 

After deliberate consideration, he accepted the position. 

General Lee was inducted into office as president of Washington College 
on October 2, 1865. Immediately he applied his tireless energies to this 
new work, and quickly reduced it to perfect method. 

This was a task that would have discouraged men unaccustomed to the 
effect of discipline and system in a large way; for as an educational institu- 
tion, Washington College was then little more than a name, less than an 
efficient academy; wnth few students, and buildings pillaged, defaced, and 
falling into ruins; with a slender faculty, and little endowment. 

But his presence gave it instant prestige and vivified it with life that 
flows as naturally from such a character as electric current traverses the 
wire. Soon Washington College took on the semblance of a great univer- 
sity, and began to be known as an institution of learning that was to be 
reckoned among the greater colleges. 

It was most natural that his character should become a lodestone to 
draw the flower of Southern youth to this point and that they should 
become surcharged with the elevation of his ideals. He was the fellow of 













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Reproduction of autograph letter of General Lee, replying to tender of presidencj^ 

of Washington College 



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every student, yet set apart by the commanding- dignity with which he 
surrounded his office. Always sympathetic, helpful, thoughtful of the inter- 
est and future of the individual ; constantly aligning the student body with 
that standard of conduct always his own, he brought to the office of edu- 
cator an influence for good that w^ell earned for him the encomium : 
''General Lee as college president has ennobled every eoUege in the land." 

His work w-as carried on with wonderful energy; prompt at the morn- 
ing hour, lasting well through the day; always available to his developing 
faculty for counsel and direction; ready to see every caller, and with his 
innate courtesy, to answer every letter ; like a father to his students. 

Students came from every part of the South, many of his soldiers 
whose scholastic training had been interrupted by the war, and sons of other 
immortal veterans who had stood the shock of battle in the great victories 
around Richmond ; at Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chan- 
cellorsville; in the epic of Gettysburg, and the battles sequent to the 
Alaryland-Pennsylvania campaign: Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor 
— and through the long-drawn exhaustion of the Confederate forces, down 
to the hour when 8,000 footsore, ragged and hunger-stricken heroes, 
peers of Caesar's Tenth Legion and Napoleon's Old Guard, surrendered 
to the enveloping forces of Grant and Sherman. Great sacrifices were 
necessary to send these boys to General Lee's tutelage, but the deprivations 
gave to the South many of its present leaders of thought and action, and 
formed the cornerstone of a structure to which the world now owes much 
in literature, art, jurisprudence and commerce. 

The veterans' confidence was surely placed. He was ''Marse Robert," 
the resourceful, the circumspect, the wise, the kind, translated to college 
halls from fields that had long bound commander and men in one sympa- 
thetic body. 

Because of General Lee's presence, money came readily ; the grounds 
were enlarged ; additional buildings were erected ; the faculty was increased ; 
apparatus and library were extended, and the new president's broad plans of 
development went forward with the alacrity of a military campaign. 

General Lee was unsparing of himself. The correspondence of the col- 
lege was from his own hand; he was constantly in his office and always to 
be seen by callers, faculty, parents and students alike. His time seemed as 
flexil)le as the demand made on it, however much it should be. No letter 
was unanswered ; no effort of courtesy was too laborious ; no faculty meet- 
ing was held without him; no bill was too insignificant to have his own 
painstaking audit. 

Students found inspiration and stimulant in the knowledge of the pres- 
ident's familiarity with their scholastic standing, outside deportment, home 



life and athletic attainments, and although a request to appear before him 
was not received with equanimity, nevertheless the student knew that justice 
always attended the reproof and admonition that came from the head of 
the institution, and he was prepared to accept the justice of the reproof, 
couched as it invariably was in terms of courtesy and gentleness, yet so 
direct that the effect was never lost. 

Professor Joynes, of General Lee's faculty, has related that "his sense 
of personal duty was also expanded into a warm solicitude for all who were 
associated with him. To the faculty, he was an elder brother, beloved and 
revered, and full of tender sympathy. To the students, he was a father 
in carefulness, in encouragement, in reproof. Their welfare and their con- 
duct and character as gentlemen were his chief concern ; and this solicitude 
was not limited to their collegiate years, but followed them abroad in life. 
He thought it to be the office of the college not merely to educate the intel- 
lect, but to make Christian gentlemen. The moral and religious character 
of the students was more precious in his eyes even than their intellectual 
progress, and was made the special object of his personal solicitude. In the 
discipline of the college his moral influence was supreme. A disciplinarian 
— but no seeker after small offences, or stickler for formal regulations, 
^'outhful indiscretion found in him the most lenient of judges; but false- 
hood and meanness he did not tolerate." 

General Lee constantly sought to eradicate feelings of bitterness and 
rancor resulting from the war. He carefully abstained from expressions 
and acts that may have been misconstrued, and discouraged praise of him- 
self in the public utterances of students and faculty, from an intense desire 
that the war and its results be left to the past, and that all should resolutely 
face a future that held promise of peace and material prosperity. 

Above every other thought stood his overruling passion for duty. 

When he, representing the Southern people at Appomattox, accepted 
the hard decree of fate and yielded his army, this was to his mind the close 
of a momentous period; the end of his struggle and his people's designs, 
and it was also the entrance into a new horizon, along a new line of 
progression, in which the elements of previous action had no part. 

To him, the surrender was an inviolable contract. However, never for 
a moment did he lose the vision of his people or the justice of their cause, 
although steadily pursuing the terms of the Appomattox covenant, and 
always wielding his powerful influence on the veteran soldiery and their 
sons to join him in steadfast adherence to that agreement. 

How difficult this may have been to a soul of lesser measure may be 
conjectured when thought is taken of the venomous malignity of rabid 
partisans who lost no opportunity to heap upon his name insult, ignominy, 



and detraction. But for General Lee there was always the constant star 
of his serene soul to uphold his eyes so that this turgid stream of vitupera- 
tion flowed beyond his feet unrecognized. 

Let it be said in their honor that those who had fought most bravely 
against him were ever ready to acknowledge his greatness as antagonist and 
commander, and his patriotism and purity as man and citizen. 

General Lee's freedom from rancor was demonstrated by an indefinite 
number of significant incidents, but never more clearly than by this incident, 
related by a Northern visitor to Lexington: "One day last autumn the writer 
saw General Lee standing at his gate, talking pleasantly to a poorly-clad 
wayfarer, who seemed very much pleased at the cordial courtesy of this 
great man, and turned ofif, evidently delighted, as we came up. After 
exchanging salutations, the general said, pointing to the retreating form, 
'That is one of our old soldiers, who is in necessitous circumstances.' I took 
it for granted that it was some veteran Confederate, when the noblehearted 
chieftain quietly added, 'He fought on the other side, but we must not think 
of that.' I afterward ascertained — not from General Lee, for he never 
alluded to his charities — that he had not only spoken very kindly to this 'old 
soldier' who had 'fought on the other side,' but had sent him on his way 
rejoicing in a liberal contribution to his necessities." 

^^■^ 

The source of his power over men and his ready detachment from the 
influence of untoward circumstance flowed from his Christianity. No one 
came into contact with General Lee without quickly recognizing his entire 
consecration to the Greater Cause. Although a member of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church, he was free from sectarian feeling. A broad catholic 
view permeated his every expression and act ; doctrinal discussion fell before 
his quiet remonstrance that it was better to become "a real Christian," than 
to yield effort to establishing a dogma. This breadth of feeling was con- 
stantly expressed through letters of his own hand to ministers of the various 
denominations at Lexington inviting them in turn to conduct the appointed 
divine services at the college chapel. His charities, very large in view of 
his income, were freely bestowed on all alike, yet so privately distributed 
that the divine injunction of withholding knowledge of good works was 
always observed. 

His earnest piety found expression everywhere. Before his victorious 
army at Winchester he uncovered to a passing chaplain, with the excla- 
mation: "I salute the Church of God!" In the privacy of his retirement on 
the battlefield, when he wrote to his family: "My supplications are constantly 
ascending for you, my children and my country." After the war, when 
threatened with prosecution and death, he said of his traducers : "We must 
forgive our enemies. I can truly say that not a day has passed since the 
war began that I have not prayed for them." Then in his daily work at 




Miss Mary Custis and Lieutenant Robert E. Lee, at the time of their marriage 

Washington College, when he said to Rev. Dr. White: "I shall be dis- 
appointed, sir ; I shall fail in the leading object that brought me here, unless 
the young men all become Christian. I wish you and others of your sacred 
profession to do all you can to accomplish this result." 

This intense religious fervor begat an extraordinary gentleness and 
sweetness of demeanor and such immediate susceptibility to the graces of 
childhood, that perhaps no other man was so beloved by the little men and 
women. It is said that he knew^ every child in Lexington and that every 
child loved him. 

Foreign writers had frequently commented on the softness of General 
Lee's feelings, and it had been said that it was a characteristic ill becom- 
ing a soldier; that a rough dictator was w^anted by the Confederacy. 
But little knew these men of the iron will that rested beneath the 
velvet touch ; or the hypnotism of his overmastering mind ; or the command 
that could light in his eyes ; nor could they reach the clear heights from 
which he viewed the cleavage between right and wrong. 

General Lee's physique was superb — to his last hours as vigorous and 
robust as when in continued exhaustive marches and sleepless nights his 
endurance seemed to have no end. 

In early youth his fine figure and courtly bearing was so remarkable that 
one who observed him as a boy declared that he looked more like a great 
man than anvone she had ever seen. 




Washington and Lee University, grounds and buildings. Grace Church, of which General ll 

Insert — Washington College, dui 




was a vestryman, appears at the left. 
General Lee's administration 



Near the center is the present Lee Memorial Chapel 




At West Point, a biographer records that the "sohd and lofty quahties 
of the young- cadet were remarked on as bearing- a close resemblance to those 
of Washington." 

Field Marshal Viscount Wolseley, when a young officer in the British 
army, attached himself to headquarters staff of the Confederate Army as 
an observer. Of his first meeting with General Lee, in 1862, General 
olseley wrote : 

''Every incident in that visit is indelibly stamped on my memory. All he 
said to me then and during subsequent conversations is stih fresh in my 
recollection. It is natural it should be so; for he was the ablest general, 
and to me seemed the greatest man I ever conversed with, and yet among 
others I have had the pleasure of meeting Von Moltke and Prince Bis- 
marck. General Lee was one of the few m,en who ever seriously impressed 
and awed me with their inherent greatness. Forty years have come and 
gone since our meeting and yet the majesty of his manly bearing, the 
genial, winning grace, the sweetness of his smile, and the impressive dig- 
nity of his old-fashioned style of dress, come back to me among my most 
cherished recollections. His greatness made me humble and I never felt my 
own insignificance more keenly than I did in his presence. * * * j^e 
was, indeed, a beautiful character, and of him it may be truthfully written : 
'In righteousness did he judge and make war.' " Afterward, Wolseley's 
admiration found this expression: "According to my notion of military his- 
tory, there is as much instruction, both in strategy and in tactics, to be gleaned 
from General Lee's operations of 1862 as there is to be found in Napoleon's 
campaigns of 1796." 

Thomas Nelson Page, one of the foremost of America's literati, in early 
youth a student at Washington College, wrote of him : "Craving due allow- 
ance alike for the immaturity of a boy and the mellowing influence of pass- 
ing years, I will try to picture General Lee as I recall him, and as he must 
be recalled by thousands who yet remember him. ^ He was, in common 
phrase, one of the handsomest men T ever knew and easily the most impress- 
ive looking./ His figure, which in earlier life had been tall and admirably 
proportioned, was now compact and rounded rather than stout, and was still 
in fine proportion to his height. His head, well set on his shoulders, and 
his erect and dignified carriage, made him a distinguished and indeed a 
noble figure. His soft hair and carefully trimmed beard, silvery white, 
with his florid complexion and dark eyes, clear and frank, gave him a pleas- 
ant and kindly expression, and I remember how, when he smiled, his eyes 
twinkled and his teeth shone. He always walked slowly, and even pen- 
sively. * * * The impression that remains with me chiefly is of his 
dignity and his gracious courtesy. * * * \yQ honored him beyond 



measure, and after nearly fifty years, he is still the most imposing figure I 
ever saw." 

The last chapter in the moving history that centered around the 
personality of General Lee was begun at the end of September, 1870. 

On the 28th of that month, after a morning of unusual activity, General 
Lee attended a meeting of the vestry of Grace Church, of which he was a 
member, and over which he presided at this time. His last recorded act 
was to contribute a liberal amount of money to complete the sum necessary 
to some desired church work. After adjournment he walked home, and at 
the evening meal, standing to invoke the divine blessing, as had been 
his custom, speech failed him, he sank in his chair, and was taken to his 
bedroom. 

. Congestion of the brain was the judgment of the physicians who attended 
him. He lay in a stupor from which no skill of medicine could fully rouse 
him. Those who were the more intimately acquainted with the distin- 
guished patient felt that his malady was not so much physical as mental ; 
the cerebral congestion was believed to be but a reflex of the trials of a 
heart and mind overburdened by the sorrows of his people, the sufferings 
of his paladins, and the continued untoward conditions of life in the South. 
Little more than a year before he had experienced a serious impairment 
of health from a kindred depression, and had only rallied from it through 
change of scene and other diversion at the Old White Sulphur Springs and 
points he had visited in adjoining States. Always he lived under this 
shadow. At last it overcame his noble spirit. 

He scarcely spoke during the two weeks of his illness, even when 
conscious, showing little interest in the things that once were of such par- 
ticular care to him. The suggestion of "Traveler" waiting to take him over 
the hills only brought a sorrowful negative from his moving head. 

Lapsing into delirium, he again saw his invincible hosts and his beloved 
lieutenants in titanic struggle, their victorious eagles leading on ; again his 
genius flashed athwart the battlefield; brilliant A. P. Hill* saluted his 
orders; the great movement went forward — and he slept. 

It was on the 12th of October, 1870, that the end came. Tranquilly this 
great soul left its majestic temple. Then ''all the trumpets sounded for him 
on the other side." 

Born at Stratford, in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on the 19th day 
of January, 1807; died in the president's house of Washington College. 
Lexington, Virginia, on the 12th day of October, 1870. Sixty-three years, 
so covered with laurel, so crowded with public service, so honored by men the 
world over, so revered by those who were near him or knew his exalted 

* Last words : "Tell Hill he must come up." 




o 



J 



service, have not been the pan of another man. Trenchantly has Senator 
Hill given him space in history: "He was Cccsar without his ambition; 
Frederick, without his tyranny; Napoleon without his selfishness, and 
Washington without his reward." 

On the morning- of October 13th General Lee's body was borne to the 
college chapel that he had designed, preceded by many Confederate soldiers, 
followed by the Lexington clergy. ''Traveler," his war-horse, with equip- 
ments bound in crape, occupied the fourth position in the cortege. Trus- 
tees and faculty of the college, cadets of the Virginia Military Institute, 
citizens of the town and country, completed the mournful column, moving 
from the president's house beneath the flag of the State of Virginia. On 
the chapel platform he lay in state for two days, the casket blanketed in 
evergreens and flowers, and the face uncovered that all could have a last 
view of the illustrious soldier. 

On October 14, a great funeral procession w^as formed, with General 
Lee's staff officers and Confederate soldiers as honor escort; the college 
faculty and students, executive and legislative dignitaries of the Common- 
wealth, and a great number of citizens of Virginia and other States. With. 
this imposing attendance the great soldier was laid in the mausoleum of the 
chapel, while his former artillery commander. Rev. William N. Pendleton, 
read the burial service of the Episcopal Church. 

Here was woven the first chaplet of the great memorial. 

Eighteen hundred and seventy-one saw the name of the college become 
a part of this testimonial — "The Washington and Lee University." 

Later came the recumbent statue that lies just above the mausoleum — 
the marvelous conception of a Virginia sculptor, Edward Virginius Valen- 
tine, in wdiose studio at Richmond this most exquisite of all memorial 
marbles took form under his inspired chisel. 

January 19, 1907, one hundred years after the birth of General Lee and 
thirty-seven years after his death, a Lee Centennial at Washington and Lee 
University produced a demonstration of feeling that has rarely attended a 
like celebration. The "Lee alumni" attended, almost entirely, a great num- 
ber of men who have deeply etched the evidence of their work and character 
in the higher attainments of half a world. Leading men of the North came 
to testify to the softening and warmth of hearts where once only flint of 
hatred struck fire. By cable, wire and letter the intense interest of men 
everywhere was manifested. The letter of the President of the United 
States, Theodore Roosevelt, illustrates the general recognition at this time 
of General Lee's eminence as man, soldier, and citizen : 




S i 



o ^ 



"General Lee has left us the memory, not merely of his extraordinary 
skill as a general, his dauntless courage and high leadership in campaign 
and battle, but also of that serene greatness of soul characteristic of those 
who most readily recognize the obligations of civic duty. Once the war 
was over he instantly undertook the task of healing and binding up the 
wounds of his countrymen, in the true spirit of those who feel malice 
toward none and charity toward all ; in that spirit which from the throes 
of the civil war brought forth the real and indissoluble Union of today. 
It was eminently fitting that this great man, this war-worn veteran of a 
mighty struggle, who at its close simply and quietly undertook his duty as 
a plain, everyday citizen, bent only upon helping his people in the paths of 
peace and tranquillity, should turn his attention to educational work. 
* * * He declined to go abroad, saying that he sought only 'a place to 
earn honest bread while engaged in some useful work.' This statement 
brought him the ofifer of the presidency of Washington College. * * * 
To the institution which Washington helped to found Lee, in the same spirit, 
gave his services. * * * He applied himself to his new work with the 
same singleness of mind which he had shown in leading the Army of 
Northern Virginia. All the time, by word and deed he was striving for 
the restoration of real peace, of real harmony, never uttering a word of 
bitterness nor allowing a word of bitterness uttered in his presence to go 
unchecked. From the close of the war to the time of his death all his 
great powers were devoted to two objects: to the reconciliation of all his 
countrymen with one another, and to fitting the youth of the South for the 
duties of a lofty and broadminded citizenship. Such is the career that you 
gather to honor; and I hope that you will take advantage of the one-hun- 
dredth anniversary of General Lee's birth by appealing to all our people, 
in every section of this country, to commemorate his life and deeds by the 
establishment, at some great representative educational institution of the 
South, of a permanent memorial that will serve the youth of the coming 
years as he, in the closing years of his life, served those who so sorely 
needed what he so freely gave." And a little later: "As a mere military 
man Washington himself cannot rank with the wonderful war chief who 
for four years led the Army of Northern Virginia. He will rank with the 
greatest of all English-speaking military leaders; and this holds true even 
when the last and chief of his antagonists, Ulysses S. Grant, may claim to 
stand as the full equal of Marlborough and Wellington." 

Only a few years previous to this centenary a suggestion of the possi- 
bility of such universal recognition of General Lee's transcendent genius 
would have been received in some quarters with incredulity, if not definite 
hostility. But now, ill feeling and bitterness seemed to have been almost 




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Detail of recumbent statue of General Lee 

dissipated by clearer knowledge of the real issues of the war and the broad 
principles that prompted General Lee's adherence to the Confederate cause. 
Misunderstandings that clouded the reason of many old opponents, foster- 
ing- animosities and heartburnings, had been swept away. Love, the 
supreme manifestation of The Infinite, had united the hearts of men who 
a while before had fiercely contested with sword and gun on the fields of 
Virginia. A notable comment upon this marvelous transformation in 
sectional feeling has designated it ''a moral miracle." 

The Southerner, to wdiom the mind and soul of the Great Lee appears 
an open book, recognizes in him the touchstone. In him is seen a nature 
and spirit of quality so inspiring as to be irresistible: absence of passion in 
a mind of reason ; cry^stalline fairness ; refinement, with elemental strength ; 
dignity and poise in a setting* of utter simplicity. 

Now, it is proposed to broaden the physical memorial at Lexington, 
through enlargement of the Lee Memorial Chapel, that it may become not 
only an artistic testimony in enduring materials, but as General Lee would 
have wished it to be, an ample housing for the students of his imiversity 
in the study of the Word of God and the search for the Christian constancy 
that he felt must underlie every truly successful life ; the focal point for the 
conclusion of the work of the various colleges of this comprehensive insti- 
tution — university assemblies, commencement exercises, and the other formal 
gatherings that are an important part of its courses and the center of its 
inspirational life. 

To this end a Lee jNIemorial Fund is l)eing established: to efifect the 
reconstruction of this building and for its continuous custodianship, that 
the im])ress of General Lee's personality may be constantly exerted as a 







H 



living force for the uplift of men everywhere, and that the tradition of his 
loyalty, grace and purity may be ever renewed, to continue a most precious 
legacy to State, Section, and Nation. 

Paris holds one. New York one, Virginia two of the world's greatest 
shrines of military glory. Napoleon, Washington, Lee, and Grant. 

Napoleon, the Corsican, lies in a tomb of porphyry, beneath the tower- 
ing golden dome of the Church of the Invalides in Paris. In the center of 
a circular crypt of nearly forty feet diameter, twenty feet below the church 
floor, stands the massive sarcophagus, surrounded by twelve colossal figures 
commemorating the greater Napoleonic victories. At each sunset the 
throbbing of a military drum rises, and, as if with hundreds of harmonics, 
fills the structure with its martial sound, acclaiming First Consul and 
Emperor, and declaring the close of the day. 

Washington's tomb, at Mount Vernon, is in the extreme of contrast. In 
the peaceful Virginia estate, whence he retired after unparalleled public 
service, is reflected the First President's quiet restraint, imposing dignity, 
transparent integrity, indomitable firmness, and freedom from ambition, 
caprice, or passion. No imposing shaft, or cast of metal, or mass of stone, 
could be so appropriate to his memory as the sweet soil of his native land, 
largely his gift to more than a hundred millions who now^ participate through 
him in safety, peace, and freedom. 

On Riverside Drive, New York City, rests Grant, of Ohio, that last of 
the many antagonists whose successive blows attenuated the ranks of Lee's 
army and brought its resistance near the vanishing point at Appomattox. 
Grant, strong but retiring; magnanimous and gentle; always averse to 
publicity, is entombed with little less splendor than the great soldier at 
Paris, although with a worthiness that is completely recognized. 

Lee, again like Washington, lies in the bosom of his Mother State, Mr- 
ginia, whose proud history and rich traditions gave form to his early life 
and shaped his destiny. His simple tomb is housed in the little chapel so 
significant of the designer's sacrifices that it assumes an austere beauty 
strongly moving the ever-increasing thousands who approach it year by 
year. But General Lee's greater memorial is in his enshrinement in the 
hearts of his countrymen and the present general recognition of his lofty 
purpose and exalted character, his inestimable patriotic services, and his 
final noble sacrifice — the free gift of life itself to the youth of the land. 
The world has learned, as did Lexington, first to admire, then to venerate, 
and finallv to reverence this most eminent Soldier, Patriot, Educator. 



APPENDIX 



The Lees 
)F Virginia 



Genealogical tracings carry the Lee family line back to Lanncelot 
Lee, of Loudon, France, who invaded England with William the 
Conqueror, and after the Battle of Hastings, was rewarded by a grant 
of land in Essex. More than a hundred years after there is mention of Lionel Lee, 
who at the head of a company of gentlemen accompanied Richard Coeur de Lion to the 
Holy Land in the third Crusade. His soldierly qualities, especially his daring gallantry 
at the siege of Acre, so excited the admiration of his sovereign that the king created for 
him the Earldom of Litchfield, and bestowed upon him the estate of Ditchley, a name 
finally attached to the early Virginia estate of the Lees. After his death, the armor of 
Lionel Lee was preserved in London Tower. 

Then came Richard Lee, attached to the Earl of Surrey, and other Lees, Knights 
Companions of the Garter, whose banners with the Lee Arms were hung in the chapel at 
Windsor Castle, soldiers and gentlemen who left strong impress of their personality and 
attainments on the records of their time. Richard Lee came to Westmoreland County, 
\'irginia, acquired large tracts of land, and built Stratford House, which was destroyed 
by fire. Later this structure was rebuilt by Thomas Lee, of the third generation, whose 
sons Richard Henry, Thomas Ludwell, P'rancis Lightfoot and Arthur Lee, rendered 
tlie most distinguished service to their country. Two of these sons, Richard Henry and 
Francis Lightfoot, were signers of the Declaration of Independence. The first named, as 
a Congressman, moved the adoption of the Declaration. 

Henry, a brother of Thomas Lee, the sixth son of the second Richard, established 
an estate in Westmoreland County, adjoining the homestead, and there built Lee Hall. 
To his third son he gave his name, and from the marriage of this Plenry Lee and Lucy 
Grymes, came another Henry, afterward the famous, "Light-Horse Harry" Lee, father of 
the more famous General Robert E. Lee. In this latter, greatest, Lee, were discovered 
the characteristics of Richard Lee of the Seventh Century, distinguished for masterly 
grasp of the controlling elements of great afifairs, intense energy, leonine courage, and 
absolute coolness in the face of imminent danger. 

Marked reverence for Washington was observed by the Colonial Lees. It was 
"Light-Horse Harry" Lee, who, as a Congressman, at the death of his great friend, 
pronounced the fervid eulogy closing with the words: "First in war. first in peace, first 
in the hearts of his countrymen!" 

Lee bibliography is large — especially in reference to General Robert E. Lee — but its 
entire study will be richly rewarded. In nearly every public library will be found the 
titles given below. On the bookshelves of every Southern home, and, of every reader 
everywhere who would become familiar with the facts that bear upon the history of the 
momentous days of our country, should be the greater number of these books. Especially 
should they be placed within the reach of the youth of the land, that in forming character 
the elevating influence of this leader of men should find place. 

"Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee," Captain R. E. Lee [his son]. 
Doubleday, Page & Co., New York. 

"Robert E. Lee and the Southern Confederacy. 1807-1870," Henry Alexander White, ALA., 
Ph.D., D.D. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. 

"Robert E. Lee. the Southerner," Thomas Nelson Page. Charles Scribner's Sons, New 
York. 



"Robert E. Lee, Man and Soldier," Thomas Nelson Page. Charles Scribner's Sons, 
New York. 

"Robert E. Lee," Philip Alexander Bruce. Geo. W. Jacobs & Co., Philadelphia. 

"Life of General Robert Edward Lee," C. S. Errickson. Barclay & Co., Philadclpliia. 

"General Robert Edward Lee," Fitzhugh Lee I his nephew and cavalry commander]. 
D. Appleton & Co., New York. 

"Memoirs of Robert E. Lee," A. L. Long [military secretaryL J. AL Stoddart & Co., 
New York. 

"Lee the American," Gamaliel Bradford, Jr. Houghton, Mifflin Co., Boston. 

"A Life of General Robert E. Lee," John Ksten Cooke. D. Appleton & Co., New York. 

"Lee and His Lieutenants," E. A. Pollard. E. B. Treat & Co.. New York. 

"Four Years Under Marse Robert," Robert Stiles. Neale Publishing Co., New York. 

"Lee's Centennial: An Address by Charles Francis Adams." Houghton, Alifflin Co., 
Boston. 

"Life and Letters of Robert Edward Lee, Soldier and Alan," Rev. J. William Jones, D.D. 
Neale Publishing Co., New York. 

"Personal Reminiscences. Anecdotes and Letters of Robert E. Lee." Rev. J. William Jones, 
D.D. D. Appleton & Co., New York. 

"The Soul of Lee; by one of his soldiers." Randolph H. McKim. Longmans. Green & Co., 
New York. 

Biography, letters, etc., of the earHer Lees are gcnerahy out of print, but may be 
fotind in the larger libraries. 



Stnwtford 
House 



At the close of the Revolutionary War, "Light-Horse Harry" Lee, 
father of General Robert E. Lee, took up residence at Stratford House, 
Westmoreland County, Virginia. The original Stratford Llouse was 
built by Richard Lee, the first of the family in the Colonies. In the time of Thomas 
Lee, of King's Council, it was destroyed by fire, and restored at a cost of $80,000. 
through a fimd provided by admirers, including the Governor, merchants of the colony, 
and Queen Anne. The laborious part of the work was undertaken by servants of the 
manor, so that since no cash was paid for this, probably the $80,000 was spent for 
brick, furnishings, decorations, etc., imported from England. It was built in the form 
of H, with walls several feet thick ; a thirty-foot salon in the center ; in each wing a 
pavilion, with balustrades, and chimneys rising from the center of the roofs. This was 
an immense house ; built for all time ; intended to serve as a resort and retreat for 
future branches of the family. The location of Stratford House is a promontory on the 
south side of the Potomac. As originally designed, great lawns surrounded the house, 
with immense Lombardy poplars and other ornamental trees gracing the grounds. 

In the year 1811 General Henry Lee left Stratford and located in Alexandria, Va., 
in order to secure for his children better education facilities. He died in Georgia, 1818; 
but Mrs. Lee continued to reside in Alexandria. From the Alexandria home, on the 
recommendation of President ("Old Hickory") Jackson, Robert E. Lee went to West 
Point as cadet of the State of Virginia. 



Arlington 



In 1832, three years after General Lee had been graduated from West 
Point Military Academy, he married Mary Custis, daughter of George 
\\'ashington Parke Custis, of Arlington, the adopted son of General 
Washington, and through this marriage came into possession of Arlington, and the 
"White House," so constantly under discussion during the war and in the arbitrament 



of its issues. Many of the happiest days of General Lee's life were spent in Arlington, 
constantly cheered by an ideal home life in these stately surroundings and the confidence 
and afifection of his brother officers at Washington. Here also his tortured soul was 
rent between love of Virginia and desire to remain under the flag he had so conspicuously 
honored for nearly a quarter century — and here, finally resisting all efi^orts to dissuade 
him from casting his lot with his native State, the decision was made, as in duty bound, yet 
certainly aware that the cause could not prevail. 

That this lovely setting of the romance of his life, the ornament of his official 
position, the evidence of his private fortune, the storehouse of Washingtonian memory 
and memento and the Lee family heirlooms, was to go on the altar of sacrifice, did not 
shade the color of his resolution. 

Future prospect and present reputation alike were cast into the scale. 

Soon this property was confiscated and later became a military cemetery, where now 
peacefully sleep forty thousand of the brave men who yielded their lives under the 
Stars and Stripes. 

Years after the close of hostilities, the Supreme Court of the United States, by a five 
to four decision, awarded General G. W. Custis Lee, General Lee's eldest son, judgment 
for a portion of the value of Arlington, and absolute title was vested in The United States 
of America. 



Valentine's 
Masterpiece 



How fortunate that the full vigor of Valentine's genius flowered along 
with the robust age of General Lee, and gave art such emblematic 
beauty, and posterity such enduring record of the lineaments of this 
lordly figure! That Valentine is a Virginian, and that sympathetic Southern hands were 
to mold the lines of portraiture for all future generations, may have swayed General Lee 
from his aversion to "sittings." 

The scene of the primary work was the sculptor's atelier in Richmond ; the time, 
May 25, 1870. There accurate measurements of facial features were made, and the 
work on a bust begun. The next month of the same year — June 3 — the artist took up 
his task at Lexington, where he rented a storehouse in a hotel and received his august 
visitor day to day, concluding his modeling and observations with minutest care. 

Valentine noted in General Lee's bearing while under this close scrutiny, "a complete 
absence of the melodramatic in all that he said and did," contrary to the experience of 
other great artists in touch with other famous men. So unafifected was General Lee 
that one morning he strode into the improvised studio at Lexington with a pair of used 
cavalry boots under his arm, responding to Valentine's wish for them to use as models. 

Quiet did not always prevail, for the General's relation of experiences in Mexico, on 
the Virginia battlefields, and also his early life on the plantation, thrilled the auditor. 

Valentine's mention of his own changed fortunes as a result of the war brought from 
General Lee the playful and sound comment: "An artist should not have too much 
money!" as if wealth induced sloth — but in a moment, quoting Marcus Aurelius, he healed 
the little wound with the consoling words: "Misfortune nobly borne is good fortune." 

At Lexington the sittings were rarely interrupted, although the artist and General 
Lee were closeted for days, the admonition having gone forth: "'Let no one come in 
except Professor White, or my son Custis." When the modeling was completed, Mrs. Lee 
became the critic, while her famous husband posed for comparison and comment that more 
certainly assured accuracy. 



General Lee 
TO His Son 



"You must study to be frank with the world. Frankness is the child 
of honesty and courage. Say just what you mean to do on every 
occasion, and take it for granted- that you mean to do right. **** 
Never do a wrong thing to make a friend, or to keep one. * * * * Above all. do not 
appear to others what you are not. * * * * We should live, act, and say nothing to the 
injury of anyone." 

To another he said: "The forbearing use of power does not only form a touchstone, 
but the manner in which an individual enjoys certain advantages over others, is the test 
of a true gentleman. The power that the strong have over the weak, the magistrate over 
the citizen, the employer over the employed, the experienced over the confiding, even 
the clever over the stupid — the forbearing or inoffensive use of all this power, or 
authority, or a total absence of its use, when the case admits, will show the gentleman 
in his true light. The gentleman does not needlessly or unnecessarily remind an offender 
of wrong done him. He cannot only forgive, he can forget. The true gentleman of 
honor feels humbled himself when he cannot help humbling others." 



General Lee 
AND Slavery 



General Lee's aversion to slavery was well defined. He released the 
slaves held in his own right long before the declaration of war, giving 
his view of the evils of the system in words as unmistakable as some 
of the extremists above the Mason and Dixon Line. After the "emancipation proclama- 
tion," he released all the negroes received from the Custis estate, the inheritance of 
Mrs. Lee. 

Two years before the John Brown raid, General Lee wrote ; * * * * "In this enlightened 
age, there are few, I believe, but will acknowledge that slavery as an institution, is a 
moral and political evil in any country. It is useless to expatiate upon its disadvantages. 
I think it, however, a greater evil to the white race than to the black race. The blacks 
are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially, physically. The painful 
discipline they are enduring is necessary for their instruction as a race, and I hope will 
prepare them for better things. * * * * Their emancipation will sooner result from a 
mild and melting influence than from the storms and contests of fiery controversy." 



"Traveler" 



Nearly every soldier in the Army of Northern \'irginia knew General 
Lee's famous warhorse, "Traveler," and one of the general's most 
familiar portraits is that of his mount on the "iron-gray" that carried 
him throughout the war, and brought him into Lexington when he became president 
of the great university now bearing his name. General Lee bought "Traveler" for his 
West Virginia campaign. He was a spirited horse, but was always subject to the 
control of the general's voice and hand. One who frequently saw General Lee on his 
favorite horse said the animal "always stepped as if conscious that he bore a king on 
his back." General Lee wrote of him: "He is a Confederate gray. He has carried me 
through long night marches ; the Seven Days' Battles around Richmond ; the Second 
Manassas Battle ; Sharpsburg, and many others." "Traveler" survived his master several 
years, and his mounted skeleton is now one of the most interesting objects in the university 
museum. 



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